Tag Archives: remembering

I haven’t written anything for several weeks, I’ve been busy getting ready for Christmas. I’ve been learning a new craft and working on new items to list in my Etsy shop. I’ve been doing all kinds of things that I thought were so important. I’ve been busy.

Last Friday I stopped being busy. I spent most of the day watching in horror as the news unfolded about the shooting in Newtown, Conn.

There are not enough words to express the heart break, the horror, the anger I felt, as so many felt, as we learned that most of those who died were children, innocent, beautiful, wonderful little children. The others were their brave heroic teachers who gave their lives trying to protect the children. I can’t imagine the terror, horror they felt as they faced a gunman intent on killing children.

Last Friday, once again our world changed, not for the better, but it did change. All that is left are the questions, why? why would anyone want to hurt little children? Unfortunately too many children are hurt every day, not usually in numbers like Friday but they are being hurt. Child abuse is a fact, not a fact we should ever get used to or allow to exist, but it does exist.

This isn’t a complete list…. there are many, many more if you look them up. One site listed over 65 shootings in the United States in the last 30 years.

When? When are we going to stop killing each other? This is supposed to be a time of good cheer and good tidings towards each other, what went wrong? Where have we all gone wrong? It has to stop…. I wish I had some great plan to stop this but like everyone else I am at a total loss. I wish someone, anywhere had a way to stop all this madness, I was about to say before it gets out of hand, but it is already so far out of hand and it is frightening.

I can’t even begin to imagine what parents are feeling right now as they sent their children off to school this morning. It would have to be the most terrifying moment, even half a country away, the fear is here.

School should be a safe carefree place for children but in one day that was taken away from us, as was going to a movie, or shopping. We need to feel safe again but it is so hard in a world gone crazy enough for a gunman to shoot innocent children.

Despite all the madness around us Christmas will come, perhaps this is a good time to rethink our priorities and decide whether or not we want to continue living in a time and place where children are killed in their classrooms eleven days before Christmas.

Maybe if we all wished for Peace and Good Will, no matter if you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or any other holiday it might just come true.

Tonight hug your children a little longer, hug your family members a little tighter, remember that the holidays are truly about love and kindness not presents and hectic activities.

11 years ago our world changed. I’m sure the feelings we felt on September 11th, 2001 were the same as our parents and Grandparents felt all those years ago when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I’ve always loved history, I know most people don’t think girls, women are interested in history, but many of us are.

When I was in school I loved history, but mostly the time period between the revolutionary war and the civil war. World War 1 and World War II were okay but I wasn’t really into it. I listened to the stories my parents and Grandparents told but it never really hit me that they lived it. They had memories of the horror and fear as they listened to the radio reports of Pearl Harbor. History was that, it was history. A time in the past, to be read about, learned about, but I had no memories of any history.

My older brother fought in Viet Nam. He came back a wounded vet. My most vivid memory of that time was when the Marines sent his helmet home. It had a hole in it. It still didn’t really hit me. My brother was okay. He didn’t even get sent home early. He finished his tour and came home, different but alive. He still doesn’t talk about that time.

9-11 was different. It was our history, our terror, our horror. We lived through those days, weeks, months of fear, terror, uncertainty. We survived, but we changed. I have never been to New York but on that day it felt as if we were all New Yorkers, we all felt their pain as we watched the towers fall. We all cried as we thought of all the lives lost. We were all one, we were all part of New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D. C. We all became one. It didn’t matter where you were or what you did. We all felt the pain.

I spent 9-11 this year watching History Channel. They showed all the same footage, all the same moments that we watched 11 years ago. As I sat watching it, it felt as if it were happening all over again. All the same emotions, pain, fears and worry came back.

11 years later we’re still fighting, still dying, still struggling to come to grips with what had changed our world. Some things have changed for the better, some things unfortunately will never change. There will always be wars. Why? I don’t know. Maybe in time we, as a world, will learn to live in peace. We can only hope and dream that our children and grandchildren will never have to live through a day like Pearl Harbor or Sept. 11.

I’ve included a link to another blog that is so worth reading. Hope exists in a tree.

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I have been writing children's stories for many years. I love writing and hope you like my stories. My stories are mainly for young early readers, they also make great bed time stories to be read to younger children.

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